/m/free_agents

Reader Comments and Retorts

Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.

In other Cubs news, Bryan LaHair was DFA'd and thought to be heading to Japan. How many guys have only one year of significant playing time, get selected (however dubiously) as an All-Star and then are out of the majors after that?

And they traded the guy that they got from the Rangers for Geovany Soto back to Texas for former first-round draft pick Barret Loux (picked by Arizona in '09 but didn't sign after he was revealed to be damaged goods in a physical).

How many guys have only one year of significant playing time, get selected (however dubiously) as an All-Star and then are out of the majors after that?

Ken Harvey had two full seasons of mediocre play, in the second of which he was an All-Star, and played 12 more games after that.

Junior Spivey was an All-Star in his only season as a starter, but played three partial seasons after that.

Dave Nilsson played several years, and was finally an All-Star at age 29, and then went to Japan never to return.

Looking back on these old All-Star games, 1999 stands out for a peculiar profusion of hitters I never thought were stars in the least. Alex Gonzalez? Ed Sprague? Nilsson? Ron Coomer? Jose Offerman? Brian Jordan? John Jaha? Jay Bell and Jeromy Burnitz were stars, but this year they were in the starting lineup?